bim360

BIM360 Docs – How to Download RVT instead of ZIP

Have you ever noticed that sometimes when you download model source files from BIM360, sometimes they’re a singular Revit model and sometimes they’re a bundled ZIP package containing the Revit links?

Ever wondered why, or how to change this to get just the singular model?

They’re generally pretty easy to spot in the BIM360 web portal, you just need to look at the file size.

The files highlighted in green which have a much smaller file size will be downloaded as the singular Revit file, while the files highlighted in red with the larger file size will pull down the file plus it’s links in a ZIP package.

The resulting downloads from BIM360

But what’s the difference between these files? Are there particular publish settings that are required?

Well.. sort of.. you’ll kick yourself when you realise how simple it is, but then you’ll also be annoyed at how time consuming it could be on a large project.

Unload your links prior to publishing!

The model in the top screenshot is the 11mb model, it doesn’t have it’s links loaded and this is the way that it is published.

Meanwhile, the file with three links loaded is the 297mb model, so in reality the ZIP package could be much larger if all the links were currently loaded.

The problem I see with this is that with large projects, to achieve this you will need to unload the links, synchronise and then publish. That’s a lot of work when you have a lot of models but as always, there is potential to automate the mundane tasks.

But that’s a post for another time.

Clear Cache in Desktop Connector 13.x

Top tip from a co-worker, the new Desktop Connector 13.x allows you to clear the Desktop Connector cache, so if you’re someone that is limited on space or wants to clear up old project data, then this is for you!

This isn’t the same cache as your C4R/BIM360 cloud model cache, but rather the cache of files from Desktop Connector. This cache would include items such as non-workshared RVT links, DWG, IFC, NWC links or other files that you have been accessing through desktop connector.

It’s a simple enough process to clear up the space, and unlike my C4R Cache Cleaner, you cannot delete individual files, it simply deletes the entire cache for a given project.

Right click on your project of choice, and from there the only menu option that you’re presented with is to free up space.

Confirm that you want to clear the cache and you’re away. Once you see the confirmation notification, you’re all done.

I personally only had 2.9gb of cache for this particular project, but others on my team are reporting upwards of 25gb of files they no longer needed locally cached.

Need to reclaim more space?

If you’re struggling with available space on your system and a hard drive upgrade isn’t an option, I highly recommend Space Sniffer if you’re on Windows. It gives an easy to follow visual representation of what is taking up space on your system and where.

You can take a visual deep dive through your folders to see where data is stored. Just keep in mind some things are critical to the operation of Windows and can’t be deleted, but if you have 7 versions of Revit installed for example, when you see how much room they take up it might finally give you the nudge that you need to uninstall a few versions that you no longer use.

Help! My BIM360 Desktop Connector Icon Has Disappeared!

Over the years I’ve experienced that Autodesk’s Desktop Connector can at times be a little finicky after updating. With the release of the new version 13.x things seem to be no different.

The most common issue I’ve experienced when updating desktop connector is for the BIM360 icon to disappear from Windows Explorer.

So if this happens, how do we get the icon back? Here are a few things you can try from least destructive to most destructive.

Refresh Your Drives

First, try to refresh your drives. This only refreshes your Autodesk related “drives” and will not affect anything on your local machine or your network.

Right click on the Desktop Connector icon and select Refresh Drives from the menu.

It works some of the time, but not that often. Not a problem though as there are more things to try.

Log out and in again

As simple as it sounds, this is always the first thing you should try. It’s quick and easy and will sometimes get the job done.

Right click on the Desktop Connector icon in the task bar and select Sign Out from the menu. Once Signed out, sign back in. Simple.

Delete Your Desktop Connector Cache

Ok, so now we’re getting.. sort of.. serious. Deleting things!

First, log out of Desktop Connector and close it.

Next, head to the following folder:

%localappdata%\Autodesk

Or if you want to browse manually, this will be C:\Users\<your user name>\Local\Autodesk and look for a folder that looks like the one highlighted below

Delete this folder. Alternatively if you’re a bit worried about the results of deleting the folder, rename it so that it’s suffixed with .old

Our next step is to head to the folder

%localappdata%\Autodesk\Web Services

Delete the Desktop Connector folder under Web Services.

Do not delete the Desktop Connector folder from the folder in the previous step!

Restart Desktop Connector by launching it from the start menu. You will see the “Welcome to Desktop Connector” dialogue.

Close the window and wait for a few more seconds and your BIM360 icon should reappear!

Reinstalling Desktop Connector

On the very rare occasion, even after following these steps you still won’t see the BIM360 icon, you’re going to have to reinstall desktop connector.

The correct way to reinstall is to follow the steps above to clear out the Desktop Connector cache.

Once the cache has been cleared, uninstall desktop connector and restart your computer.

Once the computer has been restarted you can then reinstall Desktop Connector and everything should work once more.

What if I still can’t see it?

In my experience the above steps should be all you need to take. If you’re still not able to see the icon there is one step left that might fix it..